Now that it's been a month since I moved to Japan, I thought I'd take a little time to reflect on things. It's been a very busy time; getting settled in to my apartment, starting a new job and also starting a new course with the Open University.
I love my apartment, it feels slightly bigger than I'd imagined it would. This is probably because many 'life in Japan' bloggers are from the USA and talk about how small apartments in Japan are by comparison. Sure, my apartment in the UK was quite a lot bigger than my apartment in Japan, but my apartment has, a kitchen/diner, a bathroom, a toilet and a bed/living room. I've also got a loft that I slept in during the first week, but decided to move my futon onto the western style bed instead. Chairs are not the normal thing in Japanese apartments and sitting cross legged on a cushion wasn't really ideal for me ... so I decided my bed would act as a sofa during the day.
I'm doing fine with my teaching job. You get rated by the students and from time to time your lessons are observed by the manager. So far so good; I've taught about a hundred 40 minute lessons now and only had one negative evaluation by a student. That one taught me to write new vocabulary in a different colour so the student can identify where the new vocabulary is much more easily. Since then, I've had almost all my student evaluations scoring the top score. Anyway, my evaluation average is above the required standard and as I teach more, I'm getting into the swing of things.
I'm just about managing to stay on top of my OU studies. The course is interesting (at the moment) but with a busy work schedule, living in a country where I really want to explore and enjoy the culture ... plus learning the language ... I've almost got to push myself to get the study out of the way before I allow myself to enjoy living here. If I was to let up on my studies, I could see myself quickly being swamped by having to catch up with it. So far so good, but it's really stretching me to keep afloat.
Anyway, this is just a short post because I made a couple of videos yesterday.
I've been wanting to write a blog post for a while, but have been doing so many things that it would take me the best part of a week to sit and write about it all. So, this is going to be more of a highlights post.
Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing
Just over a week ago I went to see Broken Doll at the JPU Records Party in Shimokitazawa. I was delayed slightly and walked in just as Broken Doll were finishing their set. It was still great to see them and meet lots of other great people.
I also went to an office Halloween party a couple of days later which was also a lot of fun. I got to hang out with my students and speak Japanese with them - as much to practice my Japanese as to show my students that I make lots of mistakes when I'm speaking Japanese but will just keep talking away regardless. I'm trying to encourage my students to speak English without fear of being grammatically correct. Easier said than done, but by blabbering away in Japanese and missing a particle here, buggering up the sentence structure there ... but still managing to be understood and have a jolly good laugh ... I think I made a very good point to my students!
Sunset from my office on my first day at work.
On the whole, I've made a good start teaching English in my first couple of weeks. I've now taught 70 lessons (40 minutes each) with a five minute break between students. I'm changing my schedule in November because there is a technology company that are sending a lot of engineers to the studio and with my background, I'm able to provide a lot of technical IT language that gives me a good USP (oh dear, I'm using marketing lingo!!!!)
Other than work and parties, I've been getting to grips with day-to-day doing things in Japanese. One of the things I couldn't figure out initially was my washing machine. I could read a couple of the instructions, but not wanting to convert my clothes to action man costumes, I harnessed the power of Skype and my language partner to work out where to put the detergent and where to put the conditioner.
Chiba Monorail - Outside my Office
I seem to be doing OK with most things, but my microwaving skills are somewhat lacking. Yes, indeed, I recently managed to set fire to a pan-o-chocolat and set the smoke alarm off in my apartment. In the midst of a frantic dash to air the kitchen of billowing choco-smoke, I opened to my kitchen window, saw a Japanese lady staring at me and the smoke coming from my kitchen window ... said, "konnichiwa" glanced over to see that she'd put her washing out on her balcony (and thus probably not appreciating the choco-smoke venting from my kitchen window ... apologised in Japanese and promptly shut my window.
But it hasn't all been high octane chocolate fires. I've actually been out for a walk around Yoyogi Park and Harajuku.
Candy Girl in Harajuku
Kazaridaru - decorated sake barrels wrapped in straw at shinto shrines.
These are outside Meji Shingu, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo.
Today, I went to get my haircut. Walking into the barbers was fun, the barber looked terribly anxious about a 'gaijin' (foreigner) walking in ... but the moment that I started speaking to him in Japanese, the air of anxiety completely transformed and I chatted away the whole time I was there. I'm very impressed at the service; not only do they give you a haircut, but you also get your neckhair trimmed and a head massage. Then after my haircut, the trainee introduced me to her baby. So I had my first conversation with a Japanese baby today. It was so funny thinking, "oh wow, I wonder if this baby is learning Japanese words from me" ... she definitely understood the word, 'kawaii' (cute); I suspect many-a-doting-Japanese-genki-girl has approached her before shreiking, 'kawaiiiiiiiiiiii'; so that's probably a word she knows ... she gurgled and smiled knowingly in reply.
We also played 'inai inai baa' (Peek-a-boo) ... which I learned from Japanese Pod 101 in the first few months of learning Japanese. At the time, I thought, 'yeah, great; I now know how to play peek-a-boo ... that's not exactly very practical is it'; yet as it turns out, when you're in a barbers shop and you've been introduced to a baby, the fact that you know how to play peek-a-boo impresses the hell out of everyone!
